First it was breast reduction advice, now it’s weight management tips, this time from a rude Panera Bread employee who didn’t like being confronted by an angry customer. Here’s what happened to Jeff’s wife when she tried to buy some chicken noodle soup the other day:

Here is the comment I just sent through Panera Bread’s automated website. It explains the situation. In all honesty, it’s all I can do not to go down there, and kick some major ass.

My wife went into the store, as she wasn’t feeling well, and I suggested soup. She waited 25 minutes on line, and ordered her chicken noodle soup. After paying, and waiting 5 minutes, she was then told that they were out of Chicken Noodle, and had, in fact been out of it all day! When she complained that a sign should have been posted, she was told “You could stand to skip a meal or twenty anyway”

It’s bad enough that you can’t keep your menus up to date, but to abuse someone when they call you out on it is unconscionable.

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That is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. All she did was explain that it would be very prudent to put a sign up so that other customers would be forewarned, there is absolutely no need for that type of rudeness.

No… it’s not funny. It’s pretty damn annoying that some pimply faced kid who doesn’t know squat about nutrition or life would think it’s appropriate to lecture on these matters to a grown woman struggling with one of the most annoying incurable illnesses known to mankind.

Ok I seriously promise I am not a blame the victim type poster. In fact Im not blaming the victim at all.. it was a really rude incident.. however.. what kinda guy sends his sick wife out to go stand in line for half an hour.. Cook the woman soup man!

While people should not say stuff like this while at work, or really anywhere when in public. That being said I do not believe that all these stories about people being insuled just at random. I do not think we are getting the full sotry here, there has to be some provocation.

I’m going to toss out a guess that the manner in which she complained was deserving of the reply. You reap what you sow….I’ve seen people complain before, and really most of the time they are the bigger asses and act a bit too uncivil…while the retort was not right(2 wrongs do not make a right), I bet had his wife taken it up with the manager in a civilized way this would not have happened….then again I could be wrong…I was not there.

@milty45654: There is no manner in which a customer could complain where this is a deserving reply. If you cannot hold your tongue and be polite to a customer – especially in a service buiness – you need to find a new job. Hopefully one with no human interaction at all. This employee was being PAID to do a job that does not involve calling his customers fat.

Ugh, what a dick move. I know people say these things (out loud, even) but it never fails to shock me.

OTOH, thanks, lady, for dragging your germs out and exposing everyone in Panera. People like me who have thus far avoided the flu this season really appreciate your efforts. (Also thanks, lady’s husband, for not buying her some goddamned soup so she could stay home and recuperate.) It’s one thing to go to the doctor or even the pharmacy when you’re sick. Otherwise leave your sick ass in the house.

@EmperorOfCanada: The article doesn’t really state that he sent her into the store. For all we know, she could have been at work on her lunch break (not feeling well, but not sick enough to take a day off) and he could have been talking to her on the phone.

You believe that customers will be rude for no reason but can’t believe employees would be rude for no reason? How does that even make sense?
Because unlike the customer, an employee is paid to be professional and courteous as a default position.

This is not to say they can’t be provoked into telling a customer to eat a flaming bag of fuck, only that it shouldn’t be the first response.

I just don’t get the whole ‘it was the employee’s last day and s/he’s been waiting for ever to say it to someone.’ Maybe the shop has a shitty customer base, but every time I’ve quit a job, my gut instinct has been to tear the management a new one, not the customers. But I like to burn bridges like that.

I think there’s more to the story, but not necessarily on the good side for the store. She ordered, and paid, THEN they tell her 5 minutes later that they don’t have that soup? If it had been out ‘all day’, then why didn’t the order taker say so?

What’s up with Panera, anyway? I stopped going to the one in my neighborhood after the third time the cashier tried to short-change me. A different cashier each time, that is. And they’re always training someone. Evidently, pay and/or management is so bad, the place can’t keep help for very long. Even before then, I had learned not to order Jones soda. Doing so resulted in the order-taker going into the kitchen and emerging about five minutes later with the statement that they’re out of that particular flavor.

The really annoying thing is that the Atlanta Bread Company (which had great food and service) about five minutes down the same road as Panera went out of business last year.

@Rectilinear Propagation: “You believe that customers will be rude for no reason but can’t believe employees would be rude for no reason? How does that even make sense?”

Actually, I think these are probably VERY connected. The more I have to deal with rude people during a given day, the shorter my patience gets, and the more likely I am to be rude back. I assume this is something that happens to most people.

I recently had a bad experience at Panera bread recently, and let me tell their customer service department could care less. I sent in a 2 complaints on their website, and didn’t even get so much as an automated response.

That’s a shame because I really like their food. However the location closest to me seems to not really give a shit about anything.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and probably guess that she probably provoked this by projecting her dismay and any other frustrations onto the person who made the comment to her in the first place. When I was younger working in food service, there was never a shortage of fat bitchy women taking their attitudes out on you. Did anyone consider that she probably had this exchange with the person preparing the foods at the other end of the cafe instead of the dimwit who cashed her out and should have said they didn’t have anymore in the first place. Does anyone really believe that this woman was completely serene when she made her complaint, and probably didn’t deserve at least something to bring her down to earth!? There’s always two sides to the story. I’m not saying that it was appropriate for an employee to say that to a customer… but sometimes an $7 an hour job isnt worth being treated less than by lines of people all day. In fact it never is worth it.

not the best way to say to someone they should lose weight. i wonder if the husband agreed with the server. she probably was rude first. all my customer service jobs had a lot of tongue biting involved. generally even a bad day doesn’t get that kind of reaction without some sort of provocation. you tend to get fired after a certain point.

and who stands in line 25 mins at panera for soup when they’re sick? grocery store.

If this punk would have said this to my girlfriend I’d of went down there, busted his nose right in front of everybody, spit in his face, and went directly to jail, IF the cops would have gotten there quickly. If not, perfect.

@Erskine: What’s up with all the ad hominem anyway? If you’d like to explain to me why being fat is something that a person has no control over, please feel free to try. As I’ve mention, I used to be fat. It’s not like being of a specific race, sexual orientation, gender or anything else. Put down the fork, go for a walk, and get on with it.

I live close to a nice, large Panera. Their food is tasty but their employees are awful, especially the ones preparing the food. They can’t even get something simple like “no onions” right. Once I ordered a salad with chicken and forgot to check my order before I left the store. Got home and found that all I was given was a salad, no chicken. So I walked back to the store and found the manager. I tried to explain to him that I like Panera, but that his particular line cooks were really bad at getting orders right. He offered me a cookie. I told him that this does not really solve my problem. He looked at me like I was crazy… apparently the cookie trick gets most people with complaints to go away.

@Daniel-Bham, @SWFL_Dan: Really? You actually need someone to explain to you that telling someone to starve themselves is rude?

As for smoking, that actually affects the people around you. At bare minimum it smells bad and people have allergies so asking someone not to smoke isn’t out of line. Walking up to a smoker and going off about how and why they should stop completely is just as rude because, just like your weight:

1) It’s none of their business. They are a stranger not your doctor or someone who actually cares what happens to you.

2) You know this already. It’s not exactly new information that smoking or carrying too much weight is bad for you.

3) They don’t know anything about you. Why should the Panera employee assume she shovels food in her mouth when she was ordering CHICKEN SOUP?

@SWFL_Dan: You know. Part of the problem that I see on this thread is simply this:

WE DON’T KNOW IF THE CUSTOMER IS FAT!

She might be a fit supermodel, but the tool behind the counter knows that many women are somewhat self conscience about their weight and decided to go for the single-blow knockout rather than engage in some verbal sparring.

So, rather than deciding that the customer is clearly a flat slob that really needed to be told, in any form, that she should try losing a few pounds, how about some empathy for a person?

@fourinxchange: Oh, I see. She was asking for it. Why do you all read Consumerist if you hate consumers so much?

Nobody deserves to be treated rudely. And if you can’t figure out how to respond to someone who’s being rude to you without stooping to their level, you really shouldn’t be out in society unsupervised.

If someone had told me I could “stand to skip a meal or twenty,” I’d be going right over the counter and applying my extra weight to the counterperson’s throat. Just sayin’.

If the store had been out of this soup all day, somebody there should have let the cashier know, so they can stop taking the freakin’ orders for it. This is crap customer service, not a dissertation on how to lose weight.

@Rectilinear Propagation: “Really? You actually need someone to explain to you that telling someone to starve themselves is rude?”

You really think that the person behind the counter was advocating starvation? Have you seen the pictures of the starving kids in Africa? Do you understand the difference between skipping a few meals (or perhaps just eating less calories than you burn) and “starvation”?

Should we ban old women that wear too much perfume? Or is it only smoking’s smell that should have something “done about it”?

I’m not trying to defend this employee – I don’t think anyone is. I am questioning why it is that it’s considered politically incorrect to treat a fat person like they’re fat. We treat smokers differently, giving them certain areas, banning them from places, etc. etc. to encourage them to give up an unhealthy habit that costs us as a society in many different ways. Why is it OK for fat people to cost society in the same manner, but nothing should be said?

@FitJulie: “What you lost in poundage you gained in smug. You’re fugly on the inside, and it shines through for all to see.”

Well, I suppose that someone that’s fugly enough on the inside to feel the need to insult a random poster on a comment thread would know enough about it to see it in me. Thank you for showing solidarity and posting so that your fugly could shine through too!

@Kajj: Not only that, they are getting paid not to treat people rudely. That’s the whole point of a service position.

@Kajj: I agree. Regardless of the weight of the customer, saying this is wrong. Find another soapbox, please.

I get the feeling if I mention axing commenters again I’m going to be the one to get it, but for the love of god can we go back to the times when you had to demonstrate usage of your frontal lobe before you got access?

@erratapage: Why do you assume that it’s a kid? In my experience, most teenagers, don’t care, or have the balls, to say stuff like that. More likely it was some jaded 20-30 year old.
And since when is being fat “incurable”. I believe the cure is called “diet and exercise”. Come to think of it, since when is being fat an “illness”?

Panera seemed like a good place to eat when they first started opening shops nearby. For the most part that seems to be true. But at least near us, for all their focus on cafe-style decor and food, they have a horrendous turnover rate on staff. When they first opened, we had a lot of “we just opened, so we’re having a few growing pains”. Well, many of those “growing pains” never went away — because the staff changes so often, it seems like every month there are new people working there.

If you can’t keep your staff happy, you’re going to have a hard time keeping your customers happy, because its your staff that deals with the customers.

Is it the new, chic, trendy, “now” thing to do to play Devil’s Advocate first, and think about the actual circumstances second? It’s getting a bit sheep-like in here with everyone doing that on a hair-trigger now. Can you say, “Baaaahhh…..” I knew you could!

I’m not buying the wait time. I don’t believe that anybody, ever, has waited in line for 25 minutes at a Panera. Too many of these stories describe these preposterous wait times, like they justify something. Lying liars!

@Rectilinear Propagation: “Do you? You don’t skip the next 20 meals in an attempt to lose weight unless you want to hurt yourself.”

So you’re assuming that the employee meant that she should skip 20 in a row? Rather than, say, substituting a Slim Fast for the next 20 lunches?

“You’re not defending what he said you just think no one should be upset that he was rude to her”

No, I made it very clear in my last post what I was talking about. You have chosen to not read that part, and again jump to your own conclusions. Which is rude. I guess you feel it’s OK for you to be rude, just not for other people to do it…

I don’t think the insult is defendable, but who waits on a line for 25 minutes for soup? In that time she probably could have gone to the supermarket & bought a can of Progresso for $2.69 and brought it home.

@Rectilinear Propagation: It makes sense ’cause a lot of customers feel entitled to be rude where as most employees hold back ’cause they are paid to be polite. I work retail and you wouldn’t believe the amount of ignorant, hateful, sexist, degrading comments that come out customer’s mouths.
I’m sure everyone here will agree that telling a total stranger to lose weight is out of line, regardless of the situation. And yet, how many commenters have posted something along the line of, “If you don’t like your job that get an f-ing education and get a real job!” (and yes, customers will say that to someone’s face). How that any different fromm “If you don’t like being called fat, then lose some f-ing weight!”?
I’ve had employees who had to run to the bathroom and cry ’cause someone felt the need to say something stupid. You try dealing with ignorant people for 8 hour straight and see how you like it.
Oh, but I suppose we should just STFU since it’s our fault ’cause we didn’t get a “real job” ’cause we were too stupid and or lazy to go to college. Well I work in Northern Va and about 70% of everyone I’ve worked with in retail has a degree or is working towards a degree. For some of us “smart” ppl with degrees, this is our “real” job and we enjoy it. For others, it’s a mean to pay the bills while they go for something different.

I love how these stories all begin with “my wife was minding her own business while helping crippled orphans when all of the sudden a black-clad “employee” came out of nowhere and tied me to the railroad tracks before cackling and twisting his moustache”.

We are getting into semantics here. I swear people argue over word choice here and what was really meant more than people do over the Bible. The main point of the story is not about if one could skip 20 meals or how one should go about doing that, but the fact that the person was rude. Like I said eariler I do not believe that this would be said without provocation. I will agree that there is never a time when an employee should say something like that to a customer (I work in customer service and have bite my toungh many times) but if you go somewhere and act like an asshat you are likely going to be treated the same.

@Shmonkmonk: I know working retail/food service sucks and customers can be assholes. But you’re being paid to stand there and do a certain number of things. I doubt one of those things is passing judgement out loud on the customers. Say whatever you want behind their backs. I don’t think most of the comments were really saying “People who work in the service industry are worthless!” I think what they meant was “Being polite is part of those particular jobs, so if you can’t manage it maybe you should try another line of work.”

I think “skip a meal or twenty” is pretty clear. You don’t have to make any assumptions.

No, I made it very clear in my last post what I was talking about. You have chosen to not read that part, and again jump to your own conclusions.

I read everything you wrote. The only way I’m jumping to a conclusion is if your comments are off topic. If what the employee said has absolutely nothing to do with your complaint that people can’t “treat a fat person like they’re fat” then why even bring it up? If you agree that what he said was just an insult then this trip about how we need to treat overweight people differently is totally irrelevant.

There are a lot more Christians than Jewish people in the world. The Koran is not argued with meaning as much as the Bible due to concepts in Islam that I will not get into here. It was just an expression.

I am questioning why it is that it’s considered politically incorrect to treat a fat person like they’re fat. We treat smokers differently, giving them certain areas, banning them from places, etc. etc. to encourage them to give up an unhealthy habit that costs us as a society in many different ways. Why is it OK for fat people to cost society in the same manner, but nothing should be said?

Because you’d HAVE to have missed that to come up with your comment: “You’re not defending what he said you just think no one should be upset that he was rude to her. Right, that makes a lot of sense.”

Oh, but feel free, after the fact, to throw in the obligatory “The only way I’m jumping to a conclusion is if your comments are off topic.” to cover your rudeness.

@Shmonkmonk: As I said before, I only don’t understand the people who think she “must” have been rude first as opposed to “maybe” she was rude first. I agree with apotheosis that for an employee to say something like this for no reason is not the norm but it not so unbelievable that I can’t take the OP’s word for it.

For whatever reason, Panera runs out of stuff all the freaking time, and they never seem to realize it until after you’ve placed your order and paid.

Also, why oh why are the lines always so goddamned long? I know Panera has upscale pretensions, but it’s still fast food. They should take a page from the McDonalds handbook and NOT PUT TRAINEES ON REGISTERS DURING RUSH HOURS, Jesus Christ.

@SWFL_Dan: The reason we treat smokers differently is because of second hand smoke. Your smoking in a restaurant effects my ability to enjoy my meal and can adversely affect my health. However, your being fat doesn’t affect me at all.

Oh yeah, with all the pollution from car exhaust, industrial sources, etc etc “second hand smoke” is totally the worst of it. Why, if not for second hand smoke, we wouldn’t have a global warming issue at all!

If you really do buy in to the SHS studies, I’d encourage you to go read here: [www.davehitt.com]

You’ll never look at a “summary” of a study the same way again. Or if you prefer to skip the read, then allow me to point out that second hand smoke is as bad as Zoloft is good!

I want to see a full two-sides story on consumerist sometime. Person A sends in a story about how they were mistreated. Person B sends in a story consisting of a cell phone video of Person A’s mistreatment (either real, or imagined).

I’m totally serious.

As for employees getting mad at customers, telling a customer – even an irate one – that they are fat is not appropriate. However, we have somehow ended up with customers who feel they are entitled to treat employees like dog crap because the employees are there to serve them and make them happy. However, employees are humans. If you want to have something you can yell at without worry, perhaps you should start a group to petition for robot sales droids.

Obesity is going to overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in this country. I consider it my business because insurance rates are raising along with waistlines.

Maybe this is a poor time to make that point, but I think we could stand a little bit of calling out of obese folks in everyday society.

Then again, the chicken noodle soup (low fat) is only 100 calories so it was probably a bad time to jab at the poor lady. I’d be more hard core about it if she was turned away from Burger King with the comment.

@SWFL_Dan: “Oh yeah, with all the pollution from car exhaust, industrial sources, etc etc “second hand smoke” is totally the worst of it. Why, if not for second hand smoke, we wouldn’t have a global warming issue at all!”

So, according to your logic, we should not attempt to regulate any environmental toxins until we eliminate them all?

Pick the low-hanging fruit and move up from there. Burning tobacco indoors is the low-hanging fruit.

@SWFL_Dan: Unreal. I’m going to ask also for mods to have the power to ban commenters, please. I flagged all your comments, by the way.

And did you miss the part where we don’t actually know whether or not she’s overweight?

I’m sure it’s been very nice for you that you were able to lose weight. Others aren’t as fortunate as you, in having the kind of weight problem that can be solved by diet and exercise. You really shouldn’t pass judgment on them. And you shouldn’t pass judgment on fat people generally because you don’t know, as a rule, the specifics of their weight problems, and how they can or cannot solve them.

I still don’t get people’s love affair with Panera. It’s like the Starbucks of Sandwich shops. Trendy design that tries to make itself into some sort of Grassroots crap. Is that a Mega Corporate Giant hiding behind the “We love whales” sign? I thought so.

@smoothtom: You see, it’s okay to assume the other party was a stupid teenaged punk, but if we dare assume that the woman was on the cushioned side as the comment implied, we’re awful people who deserve to be banned.

@Razzler: The way I see it is that folks are giving the rude employee a small benefit of doubt by assuming they are young, immature and inexperienced with dealing with people in a “grown-up” world.
If, in fact, the employee is over the age of, say, 25, we’re letting them off too easily and they really need a smack in the melon.

@Dashrashi: “Unreal. I’m going to ask also for mods to have the power to ban commenters, please. I flagged all your comments, by the way.”

Why yes, that makes sense! Eliminate anyone that doesn’t agree with you! Why, there should be camps for people like me! Oh, and the jews! And the homosexuals!

“And did you miss the part where we don’t actually know whether or not she’s overweight?”

Nope. Although you apparently missed the post where I made very clear that I wasn’t speaking about this person, but questioning the PCness surrounding fat people in general. Even tho I posted it twice. And you admit that you flagged all my comments, including those 2.

You do realize that before they give you the power to ban the commenters, they’re going to want you to learn to read the comments, right? So maybe you could start there and work your way up :)

“I’m sure it’s been very nice for you that you were able to lose weight. Others aren’t as fortunate as you, in having the kind of weight problem that can be solved by diet and exercise.”

Please. The *vast* majority of obesity can be “cured” by diet and exercise. Don’t take my word for it – go here: [www.cdc.gov]

“You really shouldn’t pass judgment on them. And you shouldn’t pass judgment on fat people generally because you don’t know, as a rule, the specifics of their weight problems, and how they can or cannot solve them.”

Yet you are here passing judgment on me, without any information about me to base that judgment on. Are you saying that it’s OK to pass judgment on be just because I’m not fat?

Would you care to provide even just ONE web link to a cause of obesity that is NOT treatable? Things like hormone imbalance and thyroid issues are less than ONE PERCENT of the obesity cases in the U.S., yet the majority of the 32.9% (that’s a CDC statistic, not mine) obese people in the U.S. use that “don’t judge me because you don’t know if I’m one of those less than one percent people or not!” excuse.

@smoothtom: “Pick the low-hanging fruit and move up from there. Burning tobacco indoors is the low-hanging fruit.”

Less obese people means less pollution from food factories, from trucks and ships transporting food, from industrial production of farm supplies, etc. etc. etc. Just get fat people to eat less. Seems like that’s pretty low-hanging fruit as well. So why are we going so far out of our way to not do something about it?

Well, if you admit that your comments aren’t about the OP’s wife, then aren’t all of your comments not-about-her actually off-topic in this thread?

I don’t think a consumer website needs people who are going to attack others about their bodies, over the internet. You’re unnecessary, you’re not adding anything to the discussion, you’ve proven yourself incapable of doing so, and you clog up the works for people who ARE adding to the discussion. Accordingly, you should be bounced, as far as I can tell.

And this: “Yet you are here passing judgment on me, without any information about me to base that judgment on. Are you saying that it’s OK to pass judgment on be just because I’m not fat?” This…doesn’t even make sense. I’m saying that you shouldn’t pass judgment on people when you don’t know the specifics of their situations. I don’t know what your not being fat has to do with that.

If you don’t know whether someone has a thyroid problem, why would you assume they don’t, at the risk of unfairly hurting them, when you could simply be kind, and not make personal comments about people’s appearance, and err on the side of kindness and respect?

Well….I’ve worked retail and there sure were a few things I wanted to say to a few choice customers. They sure had enough things to say to me. And even when I lost my cool and told one man that he could take his broken unwarrantied stereo and shove it up the crevices of his ass, I never brought his weight into it.

:)

I’m sure it would have added a lovely emphasis now that I think of it.

That being said, I don’t think we need to continue our country’s love of being politically correct. Hell if someone called me a fat cow, I’d say that’d push me into wanting to jump on the treadmill. Maybe if we stopped being so PC about EVERYTHING, we wouldn’t have the problems we have. Sucks for the OP, but like my friend always says, if you don’t wanna be called a slut, close your legs and wear a turtle neck.

I don’t understand what’s so hard about this: it’s not polite, ever, to make negative comments about people’s physical appearance. Don’t do it. It’s rude and unnecessary. Yes, even if they were rude to you first.

@rustyni: Um. For the record, if you don’t want to be called a slut, the answer is not to “close your legs and wear a turtleneck.” It’s to fight against misogyny and sexism wherever you see it, so that calling a woman a slut becomes unacceptable behavior.

I should hope the powers that be at Consumerist remember this incident the next time they find the need to post a story wherein the writer/customer refers to the employee weight in a derogatory manner.

Also, she should have said “Well, you’re ugly and I can lose weight.” Or whatever that phrase is. Or “The jerk store called, and they’re all outta you!”

Whoa. So to return to the topic at hand, Panera really does suck. My husband like their ciabatta bread, but seriously, 75% of the time that he tries to order a sandwich on it, they’re out of it. We usually order by phone and go in to pick up, and they never tell us on the phone that they’re out. When we get there expecting to pick up our prepared food, we’re told they haven’t started b/c they need to know what bread he wants substituted. And they’ve only once apologized for this. So no more Panera for us. Thank God we no longer work in a weird backwater where the only two options for buying food if you forget your packed lunch are Panera and McDonald’s.

I had this happen to me at a McDonalds once. I was in the drive through, ordered an ice cream cone, paid for it at the first window, went to the second one and was told they had no ice cream and had been out for the entire night. I asked why they didn’t tell me this at the first window and the manager answered “Do you want a refund or what”. I looked at her and said sarcastically, “No, I want you to steal my money. You have to be one of the great minds of america, huh?” I got my money and left. I had waited in line for about 15 minutes. I went back on another day and all she could say was “I’m not stupid”.

I have worked retail and you do get paid for putting up with customers to an extent (don’t cuss or get physically abusive). I would never call a customer fat or even hint at it. If anything, I spent time trying to improve women’s self esteem.

@Dashrashi: “If you don’t know whether someone has a thyroid problem, why would you assume they don’t, at the risk of unfairly hurting them, when you could simply be kind, and not make personal comments about people’s appearance, and err on the side of kindness and respect?”

Thyroid problem is *treatable*. Part of the treatment is – wait for it – diet and exercise!

“This…doesn’t even make sense. I’m saying that you shouldn’t pass judgment on people when you don’t know the specifics of their situations. I don’t know what your not being fat has to do with that.”

The point is you don’t *know*. And according to your earlier post, when you make a judgment about someone without having all the information, that’s “being unpleasant”.

@rjhiggins: “Hey Dan, notice a trend here? You’re losing every single argument and coming off looking like an asshole.”

I’m only losing the argument if your definition of winning an argument is to call the other person names. Jackass. There, I won. *rolls eyes*

@milty45654: Excuse me? If you wait half an hour to order something, order it, and they can’t be bothered to open their mouths to say “Sorry, we’re out”, but can open them to say, “You could do to (something that isn’t their damn business) she has every right to complain.

Besides, even people who do want to lose weight, or do need to, still need to eat. You can’t just stop eating entirely.

uh, back to Panera – it’s kind of ironic that an employee would comment about a customer’s weight when the Paneras around here have a habit of putting @least a cup of salad dressing on every single salad they make.

@SWFL_Dan: No, making a judgment about someone’s body or appearance without all the facts is being unpleasant. Not to mention superior.

Are you saying that I don’t know that you DON’T have all the facts? Because that’s…absurd. Otherwise, I swear, I can’t even parse this. And parsing is usually my specialty.

Perhaps the person who is overweight is in the process of treating it, and it just hasn’t all happened yet. You want to make them feel bad for no reason? Why not err on the side of being polite and kind? Seriously. Why not?

Hmm.. I’m sure it can vary, but I’ve found Panera’s staff (at least in these parts) to be a step up from the usual fast food monkeys. Panera’s trained monkeys at least speak dialects of English I can understand. Can’t say that for other fast food joints around here.

The Panera near where I live is run by…well…I guess…no one. The manager must have went on break and never came back. The employees are sitting in the booths having food fights and talking really loud. The one person cleaning up the tables is using a dirty mop to clean the tables and chairs and then anything on the floor just gets kicked under the tables. The guy making sandwiches has one way to make them and if you want anything left off he feels it would be better if you just picked it off yourself cuz he’s not leaving it off. The soup is never consistent.

The Panera near where I work is wonderful and run by adults and the employees try to make your visit enjoyable.

@SWFL_Dan: You’re a typical “I lost a bunch of weight so I’m better than everyone who’s fat and now I’m going to preach about it” types. I’m starting to wonder if you are employee at Panera who made the comment.

Panera’s soups are actually quite good for the price (cheap!). On colder days, they tend to sell out of soup fast–why they can’t make more I have no clue. I was in a Panera one day and was told they’d run out of bread–no sandwiches, no bread bowls, no slices of bread. I had a salad.

I would’ve been insulted if an employee said this to me. However, I wonder what the wife said when she discovered they were out of soup.

@soulman901: Yeah, it has nothing to do with high quality baked goods and the fact that they make a mocha that is outrageously better than any I’ve ever had anywhere. The employees have always been nice and friendly to me, and I guess they do make sandwiches, but I’ve never tried one. I usually stop in and get a mocha and a loaf of bread to take home. Sometimes I get their little mini souffle quiches, too, which are out of this world. Yeah, it’s probably all unfounded hype that draws so many customers…

For those interested, I’ve read the EPA draft document on second and first hand smoke. This was the hard science, state-of-the-art, before the Bush administration “classified” it. Right now I’d ban any smoking outside of “suicide booths”. Living in an urban area, say Philadelphia, only doubles your cancer and disease risk. Second-hand smoke begins with quadrupling that risk and first-hand smoke approaches certainty.

Being fat from congenital sources is rare. Having wattles from overeating and underexercising is quite common. I teach in a public system and the median fat on teenagers today is what was once considered grossly overweight. My yearbook for the senior year of high school from 30+ years ago has only one student that was overweight. The norm has shifted.

I work retail and to have a clerk respond that way usually involves a great deal of input from the customer. Managers do not hire people with obvious tempers or a lack of patience. Shmonkmonk called it pretty well.

One of the problems I’m seeing in the OP is that there’s no mention of whether the person was actually fat. Of course, it doesn’t matter because there is no time that insulting someone based on their size, gender, race, etc. is acceptable, regardless of whether you think they deserved it or not.

I remember one time when I was in a department store, there was a woman who was walking around with four children, and who was taking up the entire fitting room area, which wasn’t very large to begin with. Long story, short, she was rude to us, and told my friend and I that we couldn’t take two of the empty fitting rooms because she (and her children) were using them, and that we should share one. She didn’t even work there! I got really angry, and I said a few things I shouldn’t have said, and I really regret them and it was such a low thing to do and I still feel bad about it, and I learned my lesson, to always control my anger, and not to make things such a big deal. The Panera employee should learn the same.

@UpsetPanda: Exactly. We’ve all slipped up and made rude comments about someone’s appearance. The important thing is that we not try to justify it after the fact. It’s not polite, and we shouldn’t do it.

Actually, I’m starting to notice my local Walgreens, eateries, etc. hiring MORE young-and-inexperienced teenagers, and so far my experience is that these HS or college kids are a whole lot more pleasant to check out with than the disaffected, underemployed, resentful 20 & 30somethings I’m more used to. The one pro-customer side effect of a crap job market, maybe? If you pay much above minimum wage in my area, you can be a little picky, and places are starting to be, as more kids are getting “if you want it, get a job” from the folks, I guess.

@Dashrashi: “Are you saying that I don’t know that you DON’T have all the facts? Because that’s…absurd. Otherwise, I swear, I can’t even parse this. And parsing is usually my specialty.”

Wow. I mean, I explained it like I was talking to a 10 year old, and you said you didn’t get it. So I backed it down to explaining it like I was talking to a 5 year old, and you’re saying you still don’t get it?

@hexychick: “You’re a typical “I lost a bunch of weight so I’m better than everyone who’s fat and now I’m going to preach about it” types. I’m starting to wonder if you are employee at Panera who made the comment.”

See, now THAT is funny. You must be that typical “I can’t put the donut down, so I’m fat and I can’t be bothered, so I’m going to attack someone that DID do something about their weight issue!” types. I pointed out my weight loss because it shows that I’m speaking from experience. You, on the other hand, seem to be speaking out of your ass.

@memphis9: Now that I’m firmly in the 20something group, I notice a lot more when people my age are resentful, especially if they work in a “low” job like convenience store clerk, or at Walgreens. I don’t really know why, because I don’t know every person’s life experience, but there was a time when I had friends who were basically abandoned because all of their friends went to college, but they didn’t, and stayed to enter the workforce. There was a disconnect in similar lifestyle and experiences, and for some people, it leads to resentment if there is a sense that everyone is moving ahead, or have achievements to boast about. Parents don’t typically go, “Robby became a manager at CVS!” with the same excitement as they would say, “Robby made the dean’s list!”

@floyderdc: I’ve had things said to me about my weight with no provocation whatsoever in the past. There are some people in this world that thinks weight defines you and will tell you that. I’m not saying there was no other provocation but it’s happened to me. I’m not obese or anything but men use the weight and “wh*re” cards whenever they can for no reason with me and all the women I know. I live in L.A. so it might be just where we live. I’d like to know where this Panera bread was – I’m APPALLED.

@SWFL_Dan: Can you find a place where I personally attacked you? I don’t think that saying that you shouldn’t judge fat people whose situations you don’t know counts. Everything I’ve said to you has been about your points and comments, not about, say, your weight, as you have to other people. Furthermore, I was highlighting that you’ve been complaining about personal attacks while decrying others for “attacking” you. And again, calling you a hypocrite is not a personal attack when you’re being hypocritical.

@Razzler: Way to respond to my actual point. And I don’t think “angry man” is accurate in my case.

@Daniel-Bham: Yeah, because fat people have it SO easy in our society. Honestly, anyone who thinks “society” is easy on fat people are insufferably self-absorbed fools too occupied with the privileges they enjoy being thin/average weight that they assume anyone who doesn’t fit their standard obviously just hasn’t been told that they should.

Every day, every fat person is reminded of how wrong our bodies are. Nearly every fat person believes every word of those attacks, too. Sadly, a fat person complaining about this kind of personal attack is more likely the exception rather than the rule given the deep amount of self-hatred fat people are demanded to cultivate.

@Razzler: My point was that you implied that everyone defending the woman was hypocritically calling the employee “pimple-faced.” I, among other commenters, defended the OP without making any personal comments about the employee. So your assertion was untrue. That was my point.

I don’t appreciate people commenting to insult others and add nothing to the discussion. It’s a blog, not the government. I have no problem with them bouncing Dan. If he doesn’t like it, he should start a blog himself.

@Dashrashi: Beg pardon, I went back and looked. You implied that those castigating the employee were hypocritically calling him a stupid teenaged punk, not “pimple-faced.” My larger point remains, which is that many, many commenters who object to your calling the OP, in your words, “cushioned” were not calling the employee any such thing, and so there was no hypocrisy.

@UpsetPanda: Among people I know there is even more resentment, because when they first started working and I was in school, it seemed to both of us like they were making a ton of money. Now they are still making the same amount they were then, and I’m making 2x that. They got used to being the one with the money, so it didn’t bother them that they hated their job, because they made more money than everyone else. But now that those of us who went to school are working jobs we like and making money doing it, they aren’t as happy.

And before anyone attacks, I’m not saying you can’t make as much money or be as happy without a college education, just that within the group of ~10 people I’m talking about, that has not been the case.

@Razzler: My last comment didn’t show up. I will only say that A) you rather invited me to nitpick, so it’s a bit rich for you now to be all, “Hey, why the nitpicking?” and B) I don’t find bigotry something not to take seriously. I’m sorry you do.

Also, diction is not really an issue when it comes to the written word. You could have looked at the post I was responding to, but noooo, you just had to jump on me, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU?! BIGOT! I’M TELLING MOM!

You know, I am really sick and tired of “Employees are rude” posts. Unless it’s corporate policy to be rude or do something unprofessional, it really should not be on a consumer site. The editors of Consumersist should be intelligent enough to understand that retail workers suck in general because they are mostly kids with no significant experience and training. These stories are just as tasteless as stories of Paris’ cooch. …Before someone says its not just kids, please write the word “mostly” 10000 times and then look it up in the dictionary.

“You’re unnecessary, you’re not adding anything to the discussion, you’ve proven yourself incapable of doing so, and you clog up the works for people who ARE adding to the discussion. Accordingly, you should be bounced, as far as I can tell.”.

Oh, let me guess. That “wasn’t an attack”.

@Sherryness: “Can you take this elsewhere? You’re annoying those of us who want to stick to the subject.”

This request would carry a little more weight (like, any at all) if there’d been ANYTHING in your post that was “on the topic”…

@Razzler: Not that this is relevant, but a female law student with a BMI of 19. So your assertions that only fat people care about discrimination of fat people are way off-base. I just don’t appreciate bigotry, like I said. But I’m sure you don’t understand caring about people who aren’t exactly like you. Asshole.

And you were the one insisting on precision. Call it stilted writing if you want. I just give the people what they ask for.

@Dashrashi: But I’m sure you don’t understand caring about people who aren’t exactly like you. Asshole.

Hey man, when you assume you make an ass out of you. I wasn’t assuming anything about who cares about fat people. But I do know from personal experience that they tend to be super-touchy, which you certainly are. If it quacks like a duck…

But hey, I’m a skinny female law student too (though I don’t obsess over it enough to know my BMI, you freak)! High-five, pardner!

@K-Bo: Great extrapolation on my general point. I did have one friend who extolled her great financial freedom because she was in a career and I was in school, with no “real” sense of financial freedom because I didn’t take on a job during school (I was lucky and didn’t need to). I was really happy that she found a job she loved, but it got slightly uncomfortable whenever she talked about how difficult it was to make ends meet, and I was up til the wee hours of the night watching movies and bumming with my friends, and not having a care in the world. Now that I’ve graduated, I think we’re more on an even keel, though I’m financially better off than she is, even though she’s been working for four years longer.

No, as you said, “absence of specificity, it’s fair to assume reasonable generality”. You said nothing about my posts, but stated “you” numerous times. Reasonable then, to assume you were attacking me directly. These are your rules I’m playing by here.

Now, what have I said about you that you seem to have taken as a personal attack?

@SWFL_Dan: You seem to believe that anyone who doesn’t agree with you is just jealous of your weight loss. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m 25, weigh 111 fully clothes with shoes on in the afternoon, and I still think “You’re a typical “I lost a bunch of weight so I’m better than everyone who’s fat and now I’m going to preach about it” type. Great that you lost, and more people should try the things you have, but I know people who work out every day and eat well, and they will still never be skinny. The majority of weight problems are behavioral, but not 100% so until you know which category the particular person you are speaking of falls into, don’t tear into them about being lazy.

“You’re not adding anything to the discussion” is very obviously about your posts in this thread. Here’s what that’s not: an ad hominem attack. Here’s what’s an ad hominem attack: “Wow. Oversensitive much? Guess you aren’t having much success on your diet?”

Do you seriously not see a difference, or are you just being disingenuous? I’m starting to lean towards the latter.

Um, context? Did you go look at the post that was a reply to? No? Interesting.

Here’s the comment that statement was a reply to:

“@SWFL_Dan: I can tell for a fact that you’re a dick, but you probably wouldn’t want it pointed out, either.”

You’re right. I saw no reason to “discuss” the relative merits of the argument that after one post on an internet comment thread this person “knew for a fact” anything about me.

Now, if you’ll go back and look at the comments in order, there’s not a lot of doubt about which of my posts you tried to claim contained a “personal attack”, implying that it was an attack against you. Except that my comment was directed at my posts, not at you. Then you kinda stepped in it when you forgot that you’d made similar attacks, before I had. Oops

@Dashrashi: Oh my God, you’re insane. So people shouldn’t be fat, but they also shouldn’t know their BMIs?

It sounds like you’re a little self-loathing about our chosen career. Sorry about that.

Oh man, you’re a barrel of monkeys. I could say “I’m just teasing you, lighten up” but then the jig would be up and I’d have to find some other Dense Denise to prod with my annoying stick. Oh, shi–

Anyway, you find me a lawyer who’s not just a little self-loathing, and I’ll show you a bad lawyer. And if you’re not self-loathing now, you certainly will be in a few years. Check out the NY Times’ recent article about depression in the legal profession (incidentally the title of my new hip-hop LP).

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. This one time at Panera I was served a sandwich that was literally soaking wet. Like it had been left out in a rainstorm. When I brought it back to the counter to complain, the manager stared at me and said, “What do you want us to do about it?”

@Dashrashi: I don’t think they’ve looked at this thread since it was posted. The title still says “Nsults”.

I don’t think there’s any recourse other than to ignore those that want this to be a discussion about what’s wrong with fat people and why we should hate them instead of a discussion about customer service.

Panera here is overpriced and has nothing but processed food. I have seen the stacks of sandwiches in the back. They are pre-made as they are listed on the menu, thats why you can’t have substitutions. This is for here though, not sure about where everyone else lives.

Reading about Panera’s customer non-service makes me glad I haven’t bothered to contact them with a comment of my own.

The store where I shop has a sign above the order station which says that breakfast is served all morning. When I went in at 10:45 and asked for a egg and sausage sandwich, I was told they were no longer serving breakfast.

Panera is a joke. I stopped going there because they were always out of something. Whether it’s chicken soup or a type of bread, or chicken for the sandwich… it’s just a horribly managed chain and I’m entirely unsurprised that that extends to the caliber of workers they employ.

Eh? How is that “tearing into”? The CDC says the same thing. Every doctor in the country says that. Duh.

@pwillow1: “Do you have any clue how bad it hurts someone who has no control to be told that their problem is their fault?”

Hello? I was FAT. Have you ever been substantially overweight? Cause if the answer is “no”, then ONE of us is NOT in a position to know anything about it. Hint: the guy that USED to BE fat is NOT the one that isn’t in a position to know. Incidentally, according to the CDC website, for over 99% of obese people, it IS their fault.

@erratapage: Eh. It was obviously wrong for the pimply faced teen to say what he did, and it wasn’t funny at all. But, please: obesity is not an incurable illness. No, it is the model of a completely preventable and curable condition.

I agree 100%! Panera is as soulless and corporate as you can get. Plus, the food is soulless and corporate too! I’ve tried everything there, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re ordering a turkey sandwich or a pizza or a bowl of soup — it all tastes exactly the same. Also, what genuis decided that every sandwich should be smothered in raw onions and pungent mustard?

@erratapage: i agree. that employee was rude and quite dumb. skipping meals only lower the metabolism.

@Razzler: we’re not talking about her weight because it isn’t a point of discussion than needs to be had. the point wasn’t that she needs to lose weight. the point was that some buttface kid (hopefully not an adult) said somthign very rude and insulting.

@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: One of the biggest things Consumerist focuses on, if I’m correct, is customer service. No matter what level the poor customer service is coming from, it affects the consumer in general a great deal.

That person had no right to say anything like that. Not everybody was meant to be the same size and for someone to say that, it just shows how ignorant some people are. No one wants to be a stick figure anyway.

@SWFL_Dan: “Please. The *vast* majority of obesity can be “cured” by diet and exercise.”

Perhaps, but unlike obesity, “douchebag” isn’t as easily curable, unfortunately for you and the people around you. You give ex-fatties a bad name. Fuck personal attacks, you really suck as a person. Eat your alfalfa sprouts and shut up, please. :)

Speaking of irony, you just don’t insult people like the employee did. It’s not a matter of being overweight or not, it’s about not being a jerk and verbally abusing someone about something as trivial as their physical appearance, whether you’re on the job or not. If the employee had made an ethnic slur towards the woman, would this even be up for discussion? They’re forms of prejudice that can anger or hurt people and they shouldn’t be tolerated.

To those that are putting the guy down for letting his wife stand in line: Are you for real? I’m no expert on wimmin however I know that they for the most part can get pretty grouchy when feeling blue. The guy probably tried to convince his wife to hold back and sit awhile while he stood in line. She probably told him to back off and leave her be. What’s he supposed to do? Pick her up and throw her over his shoulder, walk over to a table and sit her down? You seem to be missing the point of the damn article to begin with, and that is the employee was a fucking prick and if my wife was gloomy and she told me what the guy said….well, I just hope they wet the sponge if you catch my drift.

@BeFrugalNotCheap: I was thinking the same thing. It seemed like the guy wasn’t even there, anyway. But i know that if I was willing to wait and my boyfriend told me not to….I probably do it anyway. She’s a grown woman, she can make her own decisions. I’ve waited for 20 minutes in line at panera because the one by my house make some damn good sandwiches. i could have been done eating at Mcdonald’s in the amount of time it takes me to order at panera, but it’s worth it to me.

and to the poster who insists that diet and excercise solve everything…my little sister eats three times as much as me, never works out, and is a size 6. I walk three miles a day to and from work, every day- I go to the gym for Zumba, I eat a balanced diet, and guess what? I’m a nowhere near a 6. The ONLY way i could be would be to starve myself. My mom is considered obese, but she eats healthily, and much less than my sister…

I also have severe asthma that my doctor says was caused by second hand smoke exposure. It damaged my lungs while I was growing up, so i think telling someone not to smoke is a lot different from telling someone it’s not okay to be fat.

Excellent work… this SHS stuff is a joke really. I have seen better supported arguments in book reports written by third graders. Did one of your children compose that diatribe? It’s very cute.

So by your standards, it would be just fine for me to sit next to you in a resturant, and take a shit on the floor next to your table in the middle of your meal. It’s ok because you cannot prove that there is going to be any long term effects.

Unless it’s corporate policy to be rude or do something unprofessional, it really should not be on a consumer site.

@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: Of course it should! Who does the consumer deal with on a daily basis? Not the corporate heads. It absolutely matters how the low level employees treat the customers. One incident isn’t enough to condemn an entire company but if Consumerist gets a bunch of bad customer service stories from the same place that’s a good reason to think twice about doing business with them.

I worked at Panera for nearly 2 years, and it was the wost job I ever had. The management was horrible and incompetent (I once had a manager tell me to sweep under the refrigerator during lunch rush) and the customers are worse. I was a pretty good employee, always friendly and helpful, but some customers would scream at me to get free food. People treat panera employees horribly, they act like they’re at some upscale restaurant instead of at a yuppie fast food place. The turnover rate was huge and it was due to corporate being stupid, incompetent managers, being paid minimum wage, and extremely rude customers. This turnover rate led to no one being trained properly because we didn’t have enough experienced employees to actually run the restaurant. There is also very little communication between the cashiers and everyone else. The sign should have been taken down as soon as they ran out. The soups are the one item they can do tis with, why give the cashier yet another thing to remember we’re out of. While what this guy said was very rude, and I do not condone his actions, I almost want to cheer for him after my experiences there.

@SaraAB87: Actually only the paninis are made beforehand. They’re made in the morning before they open or after the lunch rush. They do this because they sit in a heater to warm them up so when they are grilled when you order them the cheese melts properly. All the other sandwiches are made when you order them. Also, everything is baked the night before, so they shouldn’t be stale. At least this is how it was at my Panera, and I assume that’s corporate policy.

@Rectilinear Propagation: no, the customers are rude because they didn’t get what they want. So his statement makes some sense. I don’t think I buy people just blurting out insults for no reason, not to customers anyway. My friends and I insult each other frequently, but I cant imagine just insulting a stranger with no provocation.

@Daniel-Bham: Actually, you can’t blame just the obese (or just the smokers) for rising health insurance. They’re finding now that while the overweight and smokers do have health issues (and associated health costs), they tend to die before the skinny/non-smoker/otherwise healthy people start racking up the *really* big bills that are associated with aging in the modern medical world.

I think this is pretty funny. The person who said it had to have been prevoked and if this woman has worked a day in fast food, she’d know to shut her fat face. Things happen and people make mistakes. I have told customers off because they have been rude to me. You think I am going to let someone treat me like I am a complete moron? I don’t think so. Get over it.